UniverSole: A Smart Shoe Sole Coming Soon

There are so many different ‘smart’ things these days, it is borderline shocking that the concept behind UniverSole has not been done yet. UniverSole makes a sort-of smart shoe insole. Before you disregard this as frivolous, the sole, and gait of a person plays a huge role in overall lower body health. If you can pinpoint an area of concern in your gait, switching to a special sole can greatly improve your quality of life. We had a chance to ask the UniverSole team a few questions about their new smart sole:

What is UniverSole?

UniverSole creates hi-tech shoe insoles that use advanced pressure mapping technology to monitor and track a person weight distribution, activity, and much more. UniverSoles are meant to improve athletic performance and encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Who is the UniverSole aimed at?

UniverSoles are primarily aimed at more serious athletes between the ages of 30 – 55. We believe primarily our target customers will be women.

Why did you build UniverSole?

The idea for building UniverSole came about like most new ideas, we discovered a problem, and had a potential solution. It sparked when one of the founders began discussing how he was getting a pain on the side of his leg, and he knew it was from his posture having flat feet. Then bulbs started flicking on and someone said the magic words, “I wonder if theirs a device for your shoe that lets you track your weight distribution?”. It was down the rabbit whole from there, leading us to where we are today.

Today, most low-cost wearable devices people are familiar with are made to go on your wrist. There are fitness trackers that keep tabs on your daily steps, calories burned, sleep cycles, and some monitor your heart rate. Then there are the more advanced devices, which have additional technology to tell you more about your performance, but the costs run upwards of $1,000 and are very complex to use.

We want to create something that has the accuracy of a professional grade device, is easy to use, has multiple applications, but is at an affordable price that doesn’t make you feel like you have to be training for the Olympics just to buy it.

How is the UniverSole different from what is currently available?

We truly only have one direct competitor, but they are nearly 5x our price and have half the functionalities that we have. Our product is built for the people and meant to fit within THEIR lifestyle, not the other way around. We pride ourselves on having a product that is highly accurate, educational, and quality.

Tell us your founding story. Was there an “ah ha” moment?

In all honesty it began at a bar, but don’t most ideas start over a beer or two? The idea for UniverSole sparked when one of the founders began discussing how he was getting a pain on the side of his leg, and he knew it was from his posture having flat feet. Then bulbs started flicking on and someone said the magic words, “I wonder if theirs a device for your shoe that lets you track your weight distribution?”. It was down the rabbit whole from there, leading us to where we are today.

Tell us about your founding team and their backgrounds.

Daniel Xavier
Founder and CEO. Dan is a young entrepreneur with a background as a product designer in internet and mobile. He’s already attempted two startups that unfortunately failed but were amazing experience that propelled him even further down the road of entrepreneurship. Dans main focus is to create something that people will love as well as to inspire creativity in others that have been stuck in the never ending world of corporate monotony.

Kyle McQueeney
Founder and Head Engineer. Kyle is another young entrepreneur with a background in electrical engineering. Kyle’s eagerness, ambition, and hunger to learn has led him down the entrepreneurial path finding projects that engage and excite him.

What’s the next step? What are your short-term goals?

Our short-term goals are to successfully fund Kickstarter allowing us to pursue the final stages of product development. Over the next 6 months we plan to conduct our final product iteration and molding, tie up any lose ends for mobile/software/data, and get ourselves situated into a co-working space in downtown Boston, MA.